Review

In this Sony A-Mount 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G II SSM Lens Review I will be using the Sony A99 II, and will put this lens thru the paces including Lab testing, Action photography, Video, and lots of normal Real World use as well. My Sony A99 II Review is Here >> for those interested…

The Sony A-Mount 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G II SSM Lensgoes for $2198 US and is market towards photographers looking for a serious telephoto zoom lens that does not compromise in quality at all. Particularly good for sports and wildlife photography I would say, but also great for that killer portrait depth of field layering effect I will talk about at length in the video portion of this review. And at the end of the day with a 70-400mm range you can clearly use this lens for a lot of other purposes as well like landscapes and going to the Zoo for example…

This lens is a bit heavy at 3.3lbs, but considering the quality it pumps out and the range, I did not think this was to bad at all. Don’t get me wrong, after a full day at the zoo hand holding, I did start to feel the weight!

Sony A-Mount 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G II SSM Lens – Youtube Review

In this Sony A-Mount 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G II SSM Lens Review, I will cover everything you need to know including Lab Testing, Hands-On, and Tons of Real World Photography with detailed Photo Analysis in Lightroom. Thanks for checking out my Review and Links mentioned in the video below.

But then I took the same raw file and applied some magic motion blur effects to show you what I really wanted to capture on camera. If I had more time and she was going faster I could have done it on the camera, but photoshop is a great tool at times for sure!

Conclusions:

This lens really does have killer performance at all focal ranges. It’s rendering is prime like for sure although not as fast, aperture wise, as primes are in most cases… Raw files have very little distortion, virtually no fringing at all, show astounding sharpness, color, and punchy contrast.

The focus speed on this lens was incredible and almost instantaneous. A great live demo of this can be seen in my A99 II video style Review, when I did some focus testing in the lab. That testing really showed off the speed and accuracy of the AF on this lens I would say. Then using the lens at the zoo and with all the higher speed testing with Layla it proved itself to be incredible when paired with the A99 II in my opinion.

I had a blast using this lens and if I were an A-Mount camera user looking for the best possible telephoto lens quality and range, then the 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G II SSM Lens would certainly be my first recommendation. It’s got the best compatibility for the hybrid AF performance when compared to Tamron or Sigma lenses, but they also offer some great options. Be sure to check out my Sony A-Mount Lens Guide for all the available A-Mount Lens options >>

I got some of my best Zoo photos ever to date and can’t remember a lens that has such little distortion and killer corner sharpness throughout the entire range. Only at 70mm wide open in the corner areas did I see some notable softness. That is just phenomenal optics all day long…

At the end of the day I highly recommend this lens and if Sony is planing on continuing to support the pro oriented A-Mount Camera users, I would love to see an updated version of this lens with OSS and some of that Fluorine lens coating goodness.

I really look forward to testing out the New E-Mount FE 100-400mm GM Lens and comparing the image quality. I really feel like I have the necessary intel to find out exactly how good the GM lens as compared to this A-Mount 70-400mm beast.

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One Comment

Great review of such an amazing lens, thanks. It would be very interesting a comparison between this lens and the new FE 10-400 GM.

Owning both, an A7rII and an A99II I still believe A Mount is still better for many projects. I saw your video on ten 24-70GM and I think that lens is not necessarily superior to my SAL2470Z (which I believe is even better than version II).

I also think it would be interesting a comparison between the SAL1635Z2 and FE1635GM.